A short 18 hole layout with baskets set near each golf green and tees near the ball golf tees - so you're playing an "executive" length golf course with discs. The baskets are 10 year old Chainstars and the only signage is for ball golf (in yards - and to the hole, not the basket).


Public golf courses maximize traffic by eliminating things that will slow down play (no water hazards, few sand traps, simple greens on straight holes), so there isn't much to be done for disc golf. The few obvious highlights are slightly tucked-away baskets on #3 and #9, an obstructed fairway on #11, trouble tight and a few slightly raised baskets.


But even though there doesn't appear to be much challenge, every shot has to consider the effect of wind off the ocean (only a line of dunes lies between the course and the beach). If you're more than 10 feet from the basket, you have to think about how the wind is going to affect flight.

After a few holes, I noticed that Cedar's basket placements tend to have little space behind them before you're in gnarly bushes. This made for a very specific challenge: can I make the distance with a low straight shot? If not, how do I play the wind? And how do I drop the disc into C1 without getting caught in a gust and going long into the thorns?


Another challenge is timing your visit. There's a gated parking lot with a very high fee for non-residents during the summer (it's The Beach!). There is a separate dirt parking area for golf, and I understand you can drive up to the gate during the summer and explain that you're there just to play - and pay much less for "golf parking." Play off-season to avoid any fee. Gates were closed when I tried to play one weekday last winter, and there's no easy place to park nearby to walk on during the winter. I was successful on a Sunday in mid-October - gates open, no fee (and almost nobody on the course).


With the reported closure of Calverton, Long Island is back down to two courses (a crime!). Heckscher is a much better disc golf experience than Cedar Beach in almost every way, but don't count this little track out. The wind makes it sneaky challenging.

Since the course is also a pitch and putt golf course, the fairways are all insanely well groomed.

The awesome guys operating and maintaining the course do trips around the course collecting lost discs, and keep them all at the building.

-TONS of poison ivy! All of the bunkers on the course are totally filled with it, in addition to thick, thorny growth that makes it a real challenge to retrieve your disc if it lands pretty much anywhere but the fairway.

-If landing in the bunkers or OB wasnt so punishing, the holes would be fine, but its pretty much impossible to throw from anything but the fairway.

-I think the lack of elevation changes is what I'd like to change the most about the course. Its pretty much completely flat.

The wind is about as much a factor as you would expect from being within close proximity to the ocean. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you should take a look at the location on google maps. Go on, I'll wait right here. Okay, so now that you have an idea for what the wind is like, note that its not such a bad thing. Since there is no woods component, and a rare obstacle or major dog leg, the wind is kinda nice, because it keeps things a bit more interesting.

Also, like i mentioned already, this is also a ball golf course. The tee pads for disc and ball golf are near each other, and the baskets are usually pretty close to the putting greens. Any golfers i reached usually let me play through, since i was alone and disc golf is so much quicker.

You don't need to pay to play after 5pm for now, but they will keep the window open till dark after Memorial day. If you do pay, though, you get to play as many rounds as you'd like for the day. You cannot stay after dark, as the park closes, and they lock the gates in and out of the parking lot. If they feel like writing you the ticket, its $300.